LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Sh.'iT. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



f 



What Catholics Do 
Not Believe. 



A LECTURE 



DELIVERED IN 



Mercantile Library Hall, 



SUNDAY EVENING, DEOEMBEB 16, 1877, 



By RIGHT REV. P. J. RYAN, 

Bishop of Tricomia, and Coadjutor to the Archbishop of Saint Louis. 



SAINT LOUIS: 
P. Fox, Publisher, 14 South Fifth Street. 

. / ] '• - "1878. ' ; .- - 

Hayden, Fitzwilliam & Co., Printers, 415 North Sixth Street. 



WHAT CATHOLICS 1 II BELIEVE. 



A LECTURE 



DELIVERED IN 



Mercantile Library Hall, 



SUNDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 16, 1877. 



By RIGHT REV. P. J. RYAN, 

Bishop of Tricomia, and Coadjutor to the Archbishop of Saint Louis. 



{Revised and Annotated by- the Lecturer.) 



OF CO^ G V> N 
No...V^./ / v/. 



"1- ^°/S 

SAINT LOUIS: 
P. Fox, Publishes, 14 S. Fifth Stkeet. 
1878. 



The LIBRARY 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



^4 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by 
P. FOX, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



St. Louis, Dec. 22, 1877. 

E.T. Rev. P. J. Ryan : 

Right Reverend and Dear Sir — In view of the fact, that 
your recent lecture in Mercantile Library Hall, on " What Catholics 
Do Not Believe," was not as fully or correctly reported in the city 
papers as the subject demands, and your friends desire, and that from 
the crowd in attendance, a large number of persons were unable to 
obtain entrance to the hall, there is a general wish in the commu- 
nity to have the lecture published in pamphlet form. 

You are therefore respectfully requested to consent to its publica- 
tion in that form, and as soon as convenient to prepare a copy for 
the press. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servants, 

N. SCHAEFFER, 

Chas. P. Chouteau, 
H. S. Turner, 
VV. T. Sherman, 
H. J. Spaunhorst, 
J. S. Fullerton, 
Joseph O'Neil, 
Jas. L. D. Morrison, 
Jas. O. Broadhead. 



REPLY. 

St. Louis, Dec. 22, 1877. 
N. Schaeffer, Esq., Charles P. Chouteau, Esq., Major H. S. 
Turner, General W. T. Sherman, and others : 

Gentlemen : I have the honor of acknowledging the receipt of 
your esteemed communication, in which you kindly request the 
publication in pamplet form, of my recent lecture. 

As the reasons which you suggest had been already urged on me 
for publication in this form, I resolved to consent to it. Your 
request, coming as it does, not only from Catholics, but from dis- 
tinguished non-Catholic citizens, confirms me in this resolution. 

I hope, gentlemen, to have the pamphlet out of press and in the 
book-stores, in a few days. 

I have the honor to remain, gentlemen, your obedient servant in 
Christ, 

+ P. J. RYAN, 
Bishop, Coadjutor to Archbishop of St. Louis. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I have given to this lecture the title, " What Catholics Do Not 
Believe," because its primary object is, as stated in its opening, to 
remove certain prejudices against the Church, founded on what 
" we do not believe." The positive side of the question — what we 
4o really believe on these points — will be found stated in nearly 
every instance, and implied in all. I did not think it essential, as 
indeed it would be impossible in one lecture, to state all the reasons 
for the positive side. The statement of the fact that we did not be- 
lieve certain doctrines, being the chief point in view. Thus the 
statement in regard to the Catholic intellect not being enslaved by 
submission to the decision of a tribunal, which that intellect had 
already accepted as unerring, did not involve the necessity of ex- 
plaining all the reasons for that previous acceptance, by proving the 
Church a divine institution. That had been believed by the Catholic 
intellect before being asked to accept. However, some of these 
reasons will be found when speaking on a kindred subject (page 21). 

As to the occasion of the lecture; I 'had promised to deliver a 
discourse in aid of a pressing parochial object — the payment of 
the indebtedness on our new school building — and I had deter- 
mined on the subject I should select, when I was somewhat 
surprised by an invitation from the Rev. Dr. Snyder, Pastor of the 
Unitarian Church, in this city, to deliver a lecture on some Sunday 
evening, in his church, on " The Claims of the Catholic Church." 
This confirmed my resolution as to the subject, but somewhat 
changed my mode of treating it. 

The Rev. Doctor assured me of the presence of a large audience 
of Protestants, many of whom, he stated, were ignorant of Catho- 



6 



Introduction. 



licity, except as defined by its enemies and slanderers. I could 
not resist the impulse to address such an audience, and defend what 
is dear to me as my very existence — the old Church. Though I 
could not accept the Doctor's invitation to lecture in his church, I 
hoped that non-Catholics would not object to meet me on neutral 
ground — Mercantile Library Hall. I was not mistaken. The Pas- 
tor and many of his people attended, and a morning paper states 
that one-half the large audience was Protestant. I hope I said 
nothing that could pain them. It is not, and never was in my heart 
to do so, in discussing religious questions with outsiders. The Jews 
and Samaritans did not speak to each other, but our Lord and our 
Model did speak to the Samaritans, and did select a Samaritan as a 
model of fraternal charity; though he also said, " Salvation is of 
the Jews." Without compromising a single iota of truth, we can, 
like^Him, be at once kind and true. As to the lecture itself; though 
I had delivered the substance of it before, T had never written it all 
out, as the topics were familiar to me, as indeed they are to every 
Catholic clergyman. Even now I must depend, in parts of it, on a 
corrected stenographic report, as it is expedient not to delay publi- 
cation. Hence the haste and redundancy of extempore speaking 
will occasionally be detected. However, I send it forth with the 
hope that God may bless it on its way, and that for some soul in 
darkness it may at least help to remove the impediments to light 
— lending a hand, as it were, in rolling back the stone that closes 
the sepulchre; so that, hearing the omnipotent voice of Grace, the 
soul may, like the brother of Mary and Martha, come out into the 
life and light and liberty of that Truth which alone " can make 
her free." 

St. Louis, Feast of St. John the Evangelist, 
December 27, 1877. 



what mm DO IT I1EI 



I propose to speak to you this evening, ladies and 
gentlemen, on the subject of "What Catholics do not 
Believe." That is, as no doubt you already anticipate, 
to correct some erroneous impressions with regard to 
important points of Catholic doctrine. After long 
intercourse with non-Catholics of various religious de- 
nominations, and many of no denomination at all, I am 
profoundly impressed with the conviction, that most of 
the opposition to the Catholic Church, and the gravest 
obstacle to that mutual good feeling that ought to exist 
amongst members of all religious organizations, and r 
indeed, amongst all men, arise chiefly from a misunder- 
standing of what are really Catholic doctrines on impor- 
tant points. 

Explanations of these doctrines seem almost as neces- 
sary in these* days, as in the days of the Apologies of 
the Early Fathers, some of them written seventeen hun- 
dred years ago. My intercourse with non-Catholics has 
taught me also, strange as you may think it, a great 
respect for what are called bigoted people. They are 
generally people deeply in earnest, people who hate 
injustice and deceit, and because they imagine — falsely, 
of course — that the Catholic Church is a, marvelous or- 
ganization of the powers of both, they detest it. They 
form very often the most fervent and the most persever- 
ing converts to the Church. We can scarcely be angry 
with them, because they 'are angry with an institution 
of impossible existence. Their idea of the Catholic 



8 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



Church would be a combination of contradictions. They 
are not opposed to the Church, but they are opposed to 
something which they think is the Catholic Church. To 
disabuse them of these errors, to teach those honest, 
upright, devoted and religious people, in their way, what 
we believe, to remove these misapprehensions, is one of 
the duties before me to-night, as far as it is possible to 
be effected in a single lecture. It is a subject which 
ought to be interesting to a great number of people. 
Firstly, it ought to be interesting as a matter, indeed, of 
justice, to those who protest against the Church. No 
man has a right to protest against the opinions of another 
man, until he shall have known these opinions from 
the man who holds them, or from the organization that 
professes them. This is very apparent in politics, by 
which it may be illustrated. Suppose a man, a stranger 
in the country, who knows but little of politics, has 
associated chiefly with Republicans. Suppose he meets 
a Democrat, and protests against the doctrine of the 
Democrat, and the Democrat asks him : " Sir, have you 
ever read an authorized exposition of what the Demo- 
crats believe?" "No, sir." "Have you ever heard a 
speech of a Democratic orator, or representative man — 
one who is authorized to expound the principles of our 
party?" " No, sir." " Have you ever had an exhaustive 
private conversation on the subject of the principles of 
the Democratic party ?" " Well, I don't know that I 
have had." "What have you heard about it?" "I 
confess, on reflection, that what; I have heard of you 
has been from Republicans." " Well, sir," says the 
Democrat, " they are very bad authority. You have to 
know Democracy from Democrats." And, on the same 
principle, you have to know Catholicity from Catholics. 

It is impossible then to know what men believe unless 
they themselves, or some one authorized by them, explain 
their doctrines. Hence it is a matter of justice that those 
who protest against us, should know what we believe 
from ourselves. 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



9 



For another reason the subject is of interest, ladies 
and gentlemen. The tide of infidelity is sweeping on- 
ward. The members of religious organizations outside 
the pale of the Roman Catholic Church, are obliged 
necessarily from their principles, to endeavor to stem 
this tide of infidelity. And now here is that Church, 
here are 200,000,000 banded together under one head, 
fighting a similar battle against infidelity. Can they be 
ignored by the divided and still dividing societies out- 
side the pale of this Church ? Can these bodies . expect to 
overcome infidelity, independently of any aid indirectly 
given, if you please, by this great organization? There- 
fore those who are interested in the truth of the Christian 
religion, ought to understand something of the doctrine 
of the largest, the most powerful and the most united 
organization that opposes the infidelity of the day. 

" But," some one may say, 

" THE OLD CHURCH IS NOT WORTH EXAMINING. 

She can be but of little aid in the battle against the wrong. 
The old Church, like the old Pope, is on her d}dng bed ; 
her energies are paralyzed ; she has lost her grasp upon 
the nations of Europe, where she ruled supremely, and 
she cannot grasp the younger or more energetic na- 
tions that are too progressive and aggressive to admit 
her doctrine, or to bow under her sway. Therefore, 
she is only as an institution of the past, without 
the vitality that is necessary to sustain her in the 
future. She can be but of little aid. She has stood like 
the statue in the vision of the Babylonian king. She 
has stood like that mighty colossus of gold, silver, brass 
and iron, but whose feet were of clay and iron mixed, 
and young progress — progress, religious and scientific — 
like the fragment of the rock, has struck this proud 
colossus. It is swaying to and fro ; it shall fall, and 
great shall be the fall thereof, and nothing shall be left 
but the pulverized fragments of the colossal institution." 



10 



What Catholics Bo Not Believe. 



So do they think that believe the Church's day is over. 
But not so those who read the " signs of the times. " 

A book has been recently published — a remarkable 
book in its way — by James Anthony Fro-ude, the Eng- 
lish and anti-Irish historian ; a man who hates the Cath- 
olic Church with an intensity deeper, if possible, than 
he hates the Irish people. Mr. Froude, in this work 
(which is reviewed in this month's number of that excel- 
lent publication, the Catholic World), speaking of the 
present position of the Catholic Church, uses these re- 
markable words : 

" The tide of knowledge and the tide of outward events 
have set with equal force in the direction opposite to 
Romanism. Yet, in spite of it, perhaps by means of it> 
as a kite rises against the wind, the Roman Church has 
once more shot up into visible and practical consequence. 
While she loses ground in Spain and Italy, which had 
been so long exclusively her own, she is gaining in the 
modern energetic races which have been the stronghold 
of Protestantism. Her members increase, her organiza- 
tion gathers vigor, her clergy are energetic, bold and 
aggressive ; sees long prostrate are re-established ; cathe - 
drals rise, and churches with schools and colleges, and 
convents and monasteries. She has taken into her ser- 
vice her old enemy, the press, and has established a 
popular literature." 

Evidently, the position of the Church is a puzzle to 
Mr. Froude ; and he confesses that in spite of scientific 
progress, and in spite of what would be called religious 
progress, she still gains, and gains in the energetic na- 
tions. " What is the meaning," he asks, " of so strange a 
phenomenon ? Is progress, of which we hear so much, less 
real than we thought ? Does knowledge grow more shallow 
as the surface widens ? Is it that science is creeping like 
a snake upon the ground, and eating dust and bringing 
forth materialism, that the Catholic Ckurch, in spite of 
her errors, keeps alive the consciousness of our spiritual 
being, the hope and expectation of immortality ? . . . 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



11 



Why does Rome count her converts from among the 
evangelicals by tens whilst she loses to them but here and 
there an exceptional and unimportant unit ? " (Revival 
of Romanism, pp. 4 and 5.) 

So the old Church is not dying. The old Church is 
one day said to be dying, and on the next day we find her 
giving audiences to the nations. We find in her an interest 
and a vitality ; we find her gathering together audiences 
such as I have the honor to address to-night ; audiences 
that want to know something about this institution, so 
wonderful — dying, and yet overcoming obstacles that no 
institution that ever existed overcame ; an institution 
of which Lord Macauly says, " There is not, and there 
never was, on this earth an institution of human policy 
so deserving of examination as the Roman Catholic 
Church." 

Again : 

IS IT OF INTEREST TO THE INFIDEL, 

the skeptic, the rationalist, or by whatever name he may 
be known, that he should understand something concern- 
ing what are not the doctrines of this Church, and by im- 
plication what are ? There are honest infidels as well 
as honest Protestants. From the defect of religious edu- 
cation, and sometimes from an injudicious over-education 
in religion, from want of judgment, and in early youth 
over-restraint of the mind, and a rigorism that rendered 
religion unamiable, and from various other causes, they 
have been influenced to cast aside a belief in revelation. 

Yet this class of men — and I think I kaow something 
of them — are not all settled in mind. The religious ele- 
ment is in every human heart. These men are anxious. 
They talk a,bout religion. Sometimes that class of per- 
sons may even persecute religion, but they are far from 
being at peace themselves. They must talk about it. 
There is something which impels them, simply because 
the religious element is there, and must be satisfied. 
Now, there is a large class of these infidels, skeptics, or 
rationalists, by whatever name chey may be called, who 



12 What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



have come to this conclusion : That if God gave a revela- 
tion to man, if there be a historic church in existence, 
that church is the old Catholic Church. The question 
with them is, 

EOME OR REASON. 

If there be no revelation, then they are rational, they 
think. They keep apart, and profess to act out, as far 
as they can, the knowledge that they have of right and 
wrong in the natural order. But there are some really 
conscientious Protestants who would prefer that this 
body of men should be Christians and Roman Catholics 
than that they should remain infidels and rejecters of 
revelation, as I myself would prefer a member of some 
religious denomination, possessing at least some of the 
truths of Christianity (for even a human faith in any sin- 
gle doctrine is of advantage) to an utter unbeliever in all 
God's revelation. Therefore ought these protestants be 
interested in these unbelievers understanding what Cath- 
olics really hold. This class of rationalists may be 
divided after this fashion : Some who are afraid to ex 
amine the old Church lest it should prove to be true. 

I remember one of them — an illustrious man — the late 
Dr. Brownson, who told me over twenty years ago, when 
I expressed my surprise that he had been so long a time 
in coming into the Church, " For years before I became 
a Catholic, when I was more of an infidel than anything 
else, I had the thought that the truth might be pi that 
old Church ; but I was afraid to touch it, for 1 would 
prefer almost to risk my immortal soul, than to become 
a papist in Boston at that time." 

There is another class of men who would gladly em- 
brace the truth, if they knew it, as Dr. Brownson finally 
did ; a class of men who say : " We cannot enter into 
that Church and save the dignity of our manhood; we 
cannot accept, with the intelligence God gave us, these 
dogmas. How can we, without giving up all claim to 
consistency, accept what appear to us utterly irrational?" 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



13 



Perhaps, gentlemen, what appear to you absurd are not 
what Catholics believe, but what Catholics do not be- 
lieve. Let us examine together for an hour to-night, some 
of these doctrines. Let us see whether the obstacles to 
your approaching this Church are not founded in a mis- 
conception of what she really believes. Let us see if it 
cannot be a question, not of Rome or reason, but of 
Rome and reason. 

Again, ladies and gentlemen, independently of all 
religious considerations, a man who desires to under- 
stand the philosophy of history, must know something 
of the real doctrines of this old Church. That Church 
has had more to do with humanity, has had more effect 
on human society than any organization in existence, or 
that has been in existence, since the time of our Divine 
Lord. Therefore, to understand the history of our race, 
to trace effects to their causes, it is necessary that we 
should understand this Church, understand some- 
thing of the real doctrines which she professes, because 
the influence that she exercised was an influence arising 
logically from these very doctrines, and cannot be un- 
derstood by those who understand not the doctrines 
themselves. Guizot, the French statesman, and, as you 
are aware, a Protestant, speaking on this subject, says: 

" The Church has exercised a vast and important in- 
fluence upon the moral and intellectual order of Europe, 
upon the notions, sentiments and manners of society. 
This fact is evident. The intellectual and moral pro 
gress of Europe has been essentially theological. Look 
at its history from the fifth to the sixteenth century, and 
you will find throughout, that theology has possessed 
and directed the human mind. Every idea is impressed 
with theology. Every question that has been started, 
whether philosophical, political or historical, has been 
considered in a religious point of view. . . . We 
shall find the same fact hold if we travel through the 
regions of literature; the habits, the sentiments, the 
language of theology there show themselves at every 



14 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



step. This influence, taken altogether, has been salu- 
tary. It not only kept up and ministered to the intel- 
lectual movement in Europe, but the system of doctrines 
and precepts by whose authority it stamped its impress 
upon that movement, was incalculably superior to any 
which the ancient world had known. . . . Notwith- 
standing all the evil, all the abases which may have 
crept into the Church ; notwithstanding all the acts of 
tyranny of which she has been guilty, we must still 
acknowledge her influence upon the progress and culture 
of the human race to have been beneficial. That she 
has assisted in its development rather than its compres- 
sion, in its expansion rather than its confinement." — 
History of Civilization, vol. i, pp. 136-7. 

So that to understand the philosophy of history, we 
must know something of this Church, and of that theol- 
ogy which had such influence, as he says, upon the direc- 
tion of affairs in Europe through so many ages. 

Such are some of the reasons why this lecture ought 
to interest different classes of inquirers. Now I come to 
the lecture itself. In order to render it, perhaps, more 
interesting and clear, I shall make it take the form of an 
indictment against the Catholic Church ; in the first place 
bringing forward the counts of that indictment, and in 
the second place, showing that the charges in this indict- 
ment are founded upon what Catholics do not believe, 
and therefore the indictment must fall to the ground. 
Then I would say, placing myself in the position of an 
objector, "I charge the Catholic Church with having 
enslaved the human intellect ; with having degraded reli- 
gion ; with having demoralized the individual and public 
conscience. She enslaves the human intellect by her 
doctrinal authority. Man, endowed by Almighty God 
with reason, is obliged to submit that reason to the dic- 
tate of a human institution, and though he may with 
that reason have come to a certain conclusion, the mo- 
ment this authority speaks, he must bow his head and 
submit to it notwithstanding his previous convictions. 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 15 



Suppose an intellectual balance before you. A man de- 
liberates on a certain question. He puts the argu- 
ments for the doctrine into one scale and the argu- 
ments against it into the other. Following his rea- 
son, he comes to a conclusion adverse to the doctrine, 
and the scale against the doctrine sinks, and the scale 
with the arguments for it rises. Now, using the 
reason that God gave him, he has come to this con- 
clusion. He hears of a decision of Church authority — 
the Pope speaking ex cathedra, or a decree of a General 
Council — and that man, in opposition to his previous 
convictions — must submit his intellect — the Church, as it 
were, rudely pulling down the lighter scale, and he must 
bow and cry credo. Here, it may be urged, is an enslav- 
ing of the human intellect. Again, the intellect is en- 
slaved, because the Church takes from it the grounds on 
which it can form an intelligent judgment. She takes 
the Scriptures of God from man, or if she permits him 
to read them, it must be with her own interpretation. 
Here, therefore, is slavery of the intellect of the very 
worst character. And again, by her gorgeous ceremo- 
nial, by her use of the arts — architecture, sculpture, 
music, painting and poetry — she cheats, as it were, rea- 
son. Reason has to be silent, and the Catholic, over- 
awed by the majesty and magnitude of her grand cathe- 
drals, dazzled with excessive light and glory, by her use 
of the fine arts— the Catholic led captive, a willing cap- 
tive, if you please, by her love of the beautiful — her 
sentimentalism — is no longer reasonable. He is the 
slave of this sentimentalism. It is said of a man, who, 
being present in St. Peter's Church in Rome, amidst all 
the splendor of some grand ceremonial, found himself 
kneeling on the marble pavement. He felt his heart 
moved as it had never been moved before. The religious 
aesthetic influence was upon him, but he rose superior 
to it, and said : 

" This is not reason, this is sentiment, this is imagina- 
tion ; I will break these enchanting bonds ; I will be a 
man and follow my reason alone." 



16 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



Again, it is urged that the Church degrades religion ; be- 
cause the great object of religion is God, and any power 
that places upon his throne any being but God, and 
offers that creature worship, is degrading religion, be- 
cause it is degrading the object of all religion ; and yet 
the Church, by her devotion to the Blessed Virgin, to 
saints and angels, by her devotion to even inanimate 
objects — pictures, statues, relics, and so forth, substitutes 
something for religious worship, which is not God, and, 
therefore, degrades Religion. Finally, she demoralizes 
the individual and the public conscience, because she 
teaches the doctrine that a man may hold the place of 
God; a man may be the judge of the conscience of an- 
other, a man may forgive sins as he pleases, and because 
of this fatal facility of forgiving, the horror for sin must 
be lessened. A culprit goes to this tribunal and has for- 
giveness extended to him, and goes away and sins again* 
again to be forgiven ! Here is a man, like himself, a 
sinner, who has this tremendous power to forgive sins as 
he pleases. Hence, the individual conscience must be 
demoralized, and the nation, which is but a collection of 
individuals, must become demoralized ; and hence the 
low and corrupt condition of so many Catholic peoples. 
I have brought forward these objections — having placed 
myself for a moment in the position of an adversary to 
the Church — and I have endeavored to do so honestly 
and as strongly. I think, as could be expected from a 
man, not accustomed to anti-Catholic public speaking. 
But feeling there is a power to answer them, feeling the 
truth can never suffer in this conflict with error, because 
these charges are all founded upon what Catholics do 
not believe, I have put them as strongly as it is possi- 
ble for me to do, and I proceed now to reply to these 
charges. There is no fear of mere special pleading in 
my defence of the Church. It is true that almost any- 
thing can be plausibly defended — that objections can be 
ingeniously explained away. A man has written a de- 
fense even of Judas Iscariot. I have been told of a case 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



17 



of special pleading, or rather special judging, by ex- 
plaining away of charges, which occurred in this State, 
and which is an amusing illustration of what I have 
been speaking. 

An old Democratic judge found himself in the awk- 
ward position of being called to try two clergymen who, 
during the time that the test oath was in force here, had 
been guilty of the high crime of preaching the gospel, 
without taking the "iron-clad oath." He inquired of the 
first preacher arraigned before him, to what religious 
denomination he belonged, and the clergyman replied, 
"I am a member of the Christian Church, or what 
is called sometimes by outsiders, the Campbellite 
Church." "Oh," said the old Democratic judge, "I 
knew Alexander Campbell myself. I am a Baptist. I 
understand the doctrines of your sect. Now, I don't 
call preaching the gospel according to Alexander Camp- 
bell preaching the gospel at all and therefore you don't 
come under this law." The next clergyman was a Baptist 
of the same shade, as the judge himself. The old man 
asked for the witness against this clergyman, and when 
he was produced, he said to him : " How does this 
reverend gentleman preach ?" "Well," replied the wit- 
ness, "as I am on my oath, I -must say that he is the 
worst preacher I ever heard. I would not call that 
preaching at all. I would call that trying to preach" 
" Well," said the judge, " this law declares a man 
guilty who preaches, but not a man who only tries to 
preach ; therefore, sir, you can continue to try to preach, 
but you must be very careful not to preach the gospel, 
without taking the oath." 

Special pleading, explaining away, defending, when 
the prejudices are in favor of the person defended, in all 
this there may be, indeed, much delusion ; but it is im- 
possible, ladies and gentlemen, that you should be de- 
ceived by any explaining away in answer to the indict- 
ment which I have just brought against the old Church, 
because the doctrines of the Catholic Church are not 
2 



18 



What Catholics Bo Not Believe. 



variable opinions ; the doctrines of the Catholic Church 
are sharply and authoritatively defined, and are easily 
known. Were I to tell you to-night of any one doctrine 
which I asserted Catholics do not believe, but which 
they do, there is not a child in this city who has learned 
his catechism, who could not afterwards detect the fraud. 
Hence, as these doctrines are ffee same everywhere, as 
you can find them in every authorized exposition of 
what Catholics really believe, there is no fear of special 
pleading or misrepresentation ; therefore, do I at once 
proceed to examine the subject, and to defend ; by stating 
what Catholics do not believe, on these several points. 

In the first place, Catholics do not believe that they 
are bound to submit their intellects, to the decision of a 
human institution. They have first convinced themselves 
that the Church to which they pay allegiance and by 
which they are taught the truths of revelation is a divine* 
institution, that it is an unerring messenger from God to 
them ; therefore, if they submit to a decision of the 
Church they submit to a decision of a tribunal which 
their own reason has already accepted, as an unerring 
tribunal. If they were obliged to receive the decision 
on matters of faith, without having already been 
convinced that this decision came from a tribunal 
that could not err, then they would be slaves : 
but they have a reason for submitting their reason. 
There is no possibility of slavery in this case. There is, 
on the contrary, a consulting for the real dignity and 
liberty of human reason. Having come to a certain 
conviction on a certain point, I will never yield the rea- 
son that G-od gave me, except to the decision of a tri- 
bunal, which that reason has already accepted as unerr- 
ing. The man holds the balance in his hand. The scale 
against the doctrine descends, the other ascends. Now 
comes a new reason, which he^did not know before, when 
he weighed the arguments. A decision has come to him 
from a tribunal which his reason has accepted as unerr- 

*See page 21 for some of the reasons for this belief. 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



19 



ing. It is a new argument, which he places on the scale, 
that was lightest before. This new argument weighs down 
that scale, and bowing his head he says — his intelligence 
also bowing, Credo — I believe it. My own reason ac- 
cepts it ; I am no slave in this decision. Dearer to me 
and to every man, dearer than was Isaac to Abraham, 
is his reason. It is what makes a man all that he is. 
Abraham would have erred grievously, if he had offered 
his son upon the mountain, unless he were absolutely 
certain of God's stern behest — he never could have 
offered to sacrifice that son upon a probability that God 
required it. He never could have offered to sacrifice 
that son upon a message received from Almighty God 
unless, indeed, that messenger was rendered unerring 
by Almighty God ; but having received the order, and 
having been certain of that order, then he prepares to 
offer his son. So with my reason ; I will offer it only on 
the mountain of God. I will offer it only at God's be- 
hest, and even then I have only to offer it, not to sacri- 
fice it. Reason, like Isaac, is offered, but reason, like 
Isaac, is not sacrificed, because there comes in a reason 
for giving up my reason at the time. There comes in 
this decision, this decision of this unerring tribunal, and 
therefore the dignity of human reason is only preserved, 
where the Church is unerring. The dignity of human 
reason is preserved only where a man is certain he hears 
the command of Almighty God, and hears it through a 
messenger that cannot deliver a false report. 

Nor is it true, ladies and gentlemen, that the Church 
enslaves reason, by keeping from it the means of forming 
a judgment. She does not hide the Scriptures from the 
people ; she was the guardian of the Scriptures from the 
beginning. Her monks of old, most industriously 
translated them. To them, humanly speaking, we owe 
their preservation, as we owe the preservation of 
the classics. She is their guardian. She does 
not, indeed, approve of scattering the Old Testa- 
ment, with some of its passages, concerning unnatural 



20 What Catholics Do Not Believe. 

crimes, etc., amongst children, but she does not, and 
never did, forbid the people to read the Word of God. 
She condemns spurious editions of the Scriptures. She 
*iad to protect those oracles of God from corruption, but 
ever did she hide them from the people ; on the con- 
trary, that she recommends her children to read them is 
evident, as you will see in many of the Catholic Bibles 
which are for sale in our book-stores. In every Catho- 
lic book-store there are many editions of the Bible of 
various sizes and prices ; in them are recommendations 
to study them, and in many of those Bibles there is a 
letter from Pope Pius VI, to the most reverend Anthony 
Martini, Archbishop of Florence, on his translation of 
die Holy Bible into Italian. The Pope says : "Beloved 
son, at a time when a vast number of books which most 
grossly attack the Catholic religion are circulated, even 
among the unlearned, to the great danger of souls, you 
judge exceedingly well that the faithful should be ex- 
cited to the reading of the Holy Scriptures ; for these 
are the most abundant sources which ought to be left 
open to every one to draw from them purity of morals and 
of doctrine, to eradicate the errors which are so widely 
disseminated in these corrupt times.' 1 So there evident- 
ly is no prohibition on the part of any Church author- 
ity, that the people should read these oracles of Almighty 
God. The Church interprets what needs interpretation 
for her people. Does that lessen the dignity of the 
Scriptures ? Does that enslave the intellect ? The Scrip- 
tures themselves tell us that in them there are things 
" difficult to be understood which the weak and un- 
learned wrest to their own destruction." Hence, as there 
are difficulties in them, and as they need an interpreter 
of those difficulties, this interpreter is given. Are the 
laws of Missouri degraded because there is 

A SUPREME COURT 

To interpret them ? Does the fact that there are judges 
to interpret prevent the people from reading the laws ? 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



21 



Does the fact that there are judges to interpret lessen 
the dignity of the people — lessen the sanction of the 
laws? And so there is no injustice done to the Catholic 
intellect in providing what every state in the world has 
provided, in order to have unity in that state — some 
one to interpret the laws. Hence it is false that the 
Church enslaves the human intellect by taking from it 
the means of discovering the truth, for she recommends 
these divine oracles — for she preserved these divine ora- 
cles — for she interprets, being constituted to interpret 
them, constituted by Him who said : " Go forth and 
teach all nations ; I am with you all days, even to the 
consummation of the world. As the father sent me I 
send you. All power is given to me in heaven and on 
arth." " He who hears you, hears me" " Go and teach 
all nations ; I am with you until the consummation of 
ages." u He that will not hear the Church, let him be 
as the heathen and the publican.' 3 

Now, he did not remain with those twelve men as 
individuals, but as a corporate body, which he con- 
stituted as the supreme court in spirituals to inter- 
pret his law and to decide disputes. He spoke to those 
men themselves, of their own deaths in the future ; and 
yet he said, " I am with you until the consummation of 
ages." Because, as in the Congress of the United States, 
when one man dies another takes his place, and the 
powers given to the original Congress are retained by 
the Congress of to day, though there is not one man of 
those who were members of that original Congress alive , 
so in this apostolic college when one died another took 
his place. When Judas prevaricated and killed himself, 
Matthias was elected, and Matthias was as much an 
apostle, as Judas had been. When another died another 
took his place, so that the 

APOSTOLIC BODY STILL EEMAINS, 

until to-day, unshorn of a single apostolic power — re- 
mains to judge, remains to interpret, remains to decide 
disputes. Almighty God provided amongst the Jewish 



22 What Catholics Bo Not Believe. 

people a tribunal* to settle disputes that should arise 
amongst them; a tribunal or supreme court for de- 
ciding the interpretation of his law. In the Book 
of Deuteronomy they were ordered to go to the high 
priest when there was a dispute concerning the mean- 
ing of the law, and when the high priest decided it,, 
it was death to contradict his decision. So that they 
had their supreme court; and shall it be said that 
Christianity is worse off than Judaism? Shall it be 
said that there is no authority left upon this earth to 
settle a man's doubts and difficulties ? The Jew had it. 
Plato asked for it when he said that a man could never 
be certain on religious questions, until God himself 
would speak. God, or some one whom Almighty God 
would preserve from error in teaching, must speak ; and 
therefore there is constituted in the Catholic Church 
this supreme deciding power — supreme court in spiritu- 
als. Hence the unity of the Church ; hence the power of 
the Church; hence that marvellous combination of the 
most discordant elements ; hence the men from north 
and south and east and west, of every tribe and tongue 
and people — two hundred millions believing in every iota 
the same truths, because when there was a question of 
doubt there was left an authority to decide ; and, as 
there would be anarchy in the State of Missouri in a 
month if the supreme court were abolished,^ so there is 
anarchy in the various organizations outside the Old 
Church, dividing and subdividing; essentially so, be- 
cause the very principle of union, the deciding power, 
is wanting. That power exists in the Catholic Church; 
therefore is it that in the young and energetic nations, 
in spite of all the opposition and misrepresentation, 
she is gradually gaining hold upon them, and no 
amount of scientific investigation, and no reforma- 

* Though they possessed the Scriptures, these were not deemed all-sufficient. 

tThe secular and spiritual supreme tribunals are alike in this, that they are essen- 
tial to unity — each in its order. They differ in this, that the spiritual court de- 
ciding for the mind itself in matters of faith, must be infallible to be final. "What 
supremacy is to the temporal, infallibility is to the spiritual order." (De Maistre.y 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



23 



tion, nor changes in religion — nothing, can shake the 
united force of that marvellous organization, united by 
this supreme deciding power. 

Neither can it be said, ladies and gentlemen, that this 
Church enslaves the human intellect, by her magnificent 
ceremonial: and her use of the arts in the worship of 
Almighty God, because Catholics do not believe that in 
external pomp and show of ceremony religion consists. 
We must worship God " in spirit and in truth," or there 
is no religion. The pomp of ceremony, the use of the 
arts, these things may aid man in worshiping in 
spirit and in truth, but without this, worship is magnifi- 
cent pageantry, if you please, but pageantry. Now, the 
object of the use of the ceremonial, the object of the use 
of the arts in the worship of God, is to aid man to wor- 
ship in spirit and in truth. First of all, we use these 
things as a suitable expression of the soul's allegiance 
to Almighty God. Some of the ceremonies of the Cath- 
olic Church are not seen by the people at all. In the 
consecration of a Church, during part of the ceremony, 
the people are not even admitted. 

The Church performs her ceremonies primarily for the 
Divine Eye ; you behold the priest, for instance, in the 
holy sacrifice of the Mass, turned away from the people, 
speaking in a tongue unknown to them, and in a tone to 
them inaudible. As regards the art of architecture, 
Pugin, the great English architect, tells us that he 
noticed in the old English Cathedrals of Catholic days, 
that the portions of these buildings hidden away trom 
the people, were as elaborately finished as the most con- 
spicuous parts. These men built for the Divine Pres- 
ence. But. these ceremonies and these arts were 
destined, also, to touch the human heart, and call forth 
these holy sentiments of love and admiration, in which 
that heart speaks to God, and which are as really part 
of our nature, as reason itself. How even the silent 
temple in the dim twilight when no ceremony enlivens 
it, speaks to the soul and evokes its piety and its love 
of the beautiful. 



24 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



" Hail, sacred tabernacles," cries a child of genius, 
speaking on this subject. "Hail, sacred tabernacles, where 
thou, O Lord, dost descend at the voice of a mortal. Hail, 
mysterious altar, where Faith comes to receive its im- 
mortal food. When the last hour has groaned in thy 
solemn towers ; when its last beam fades away and dies 
in the dome ; when the widow, holding her child by the 
hand, has wept on the pavement and retraced her steps 
like a silent ghost ; when the sigh of the distant organ 
seems lulled to rest with the day ; when the nave is 
deserted, and the levite, attentive to the lamps of the 
holy place, hardly crosses it again ; then is the hour when 
I go to glide under thy obscure vault, and to seek, while 
nature sleeps, Him that ever watches. Ye columns that 
veil the sacred asylums which my eyes dare not pene- 
trate, at the foot of your immovable trunks I come to 
sigh. Forests of porphyry and marble ! The air which 
the soul breathes under your arches, is full of mystery 
and of peace. Let love and anxious cares seek shade 
and solitude in the green shelter of groves to soothe their 
secret wounds. Oh ! Darkness of the sanctuary ! The 
eye of religion prefers thee to the woods which the 
breezes disturb. Nothing changes thy foliage. Thy 
still shade is the image of motionless eternity. Eternal 
pillars! Where are the hands that formed you? Man 
dies, but the holy thought animates the stone. 1 love, 
O Lord, the obscurity of thy temple, inhabited alone by 
thee and by death. One hears from afar the flo»d of 
time which roars on the borders of eternity." 

As real as reason is the power here appealed to. It 
is not a question of the slavery of reason, but it is a 
question of the liberation and the sanctification of the 
sense of the beautiful. As real as reason is that love 
of the beautiful within the human soul, and, therefore, 
the Church, by appealing to this, does not silence rea- 
son, does not lead reason captive ; but she acts upon 
another power in the soul — she acts upon the heart 
without enslaving the intellect— she acts upon and sane- 



What Catholics Do Not Believe . 25 

titles the imagination, sanctifies the love of the beauti- 
ful. In her honor, be it said, that she possesses the 
greatest power to call forth these religious and sanctify- 
ing sentiments. 

For another reason do we use these arts in God's ser- 
vice, without enslaving the reason. You go into a Cath- 
olic Church ; you see a number of pictures around the 
wall ; you see a number of people passing from picture 
to picture in procession. They are performing what is 
called, the " Stations of the Cross." They kneel before 
these pictures. Of course they do not adore them. They 
show respect to the picture, on a similar principle to that 
by which you respect an oil painting of your dead father 
or mother. They are not so foolish as to suppose there 
is life or strength in these material objects. But they 
kneel before them, because they remind them of the suf- 
ferings of our divine Lord. In each picture is depicted 
a scene of His passion. You see the people moving in 
procession; you see old men mingling with little child 
ren. The old men can no longer read, but the Church 
holds before them the book of the large picture of the 
" Station of the Cross." She has a catholicity of means 
of getting at the human soul, as she has a catholicity of 
doctrine. She has means, if one sense be closed, by 
which she tells the story of redemption through another. 
They behold these scenes in the life of our divine Lord. 
They are instructed at once, and moved to pity and to 
sorrow for sin. How often, too, have I seen little children 
looking at one of these " Stations of the Cross," repre- 
senting, perhaps, the nailing of the sacred hands of 
our Lord to the gibbet. There were the nails piercing, 
and the great hammer lifted up; and I have seen in the 
eyes of the little children tears of sympathy — perhaps 
the first tears of sympathy they had ever shed. They 
had shed tears for their own sufferings, but it is not 
often that little children will weep at once for the suffer 
ings of others. I have often thought that perhaps the 
first sweet offering, the first crystal tear of sympathy, 



26 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



from the eyes of the little child, was an offering to 
the bleeding heart of Jesus Christ in the "Station of 
the Cross." 

How beautiful, how reasonable, [how useful, are all 
those means of enlightening the intellect of man and of 
touching the heart of man! But why all the grand- 
eur of your great cathedrals and their functions ? Why 
all this pomp and show? Why not communicate 
directly spirit- to spirit ? Because man is not purely 
a spirit. He has a body. There n must be offered 
to God the tribute of the body in external worship. 
Again, man cannot, whilst he remains upon this earth, 
keep in constant union with the Divinity without 
external aids. God himself, in the magnificent temple 
of creation, gives us the evidences that He rejected 
not the beautiful in preparing this temple for His 
own service. Look at it in all its splendor, for He cre- 
ated it, as the Apostle says, " that the invisible things 
of Him, from the beginning of the world, be clearly 
seen, being understood by the things that are visible, 
His eternal power also and His divinity." Has God re- 
jected the beautiful in this temple of creation? Who 
was it, when He formed this temple, that first introduced 
into it sculpture, painting, poetry, music, those marvel- 
ous missionaries of the beautiful that, like the angels in 
the vision of sleeping Israel, bring earth and heaven into 
sweet union? Who was the first sculptor that struck 
with his chisel the marble rocks, and fashioned them as 
He would ? Who was the first painter that touched with 
His brush the flowers of the valley and tinged with deep 
azure the ocean — that mystic baptismal font in whose 
waters He purified the universe, and decreed that by its 
waters and His spirit, man should become regenerate ? 
Who was the first in^pirer of music ? Who was the first 
decorator, that studded with gems the Milky Way and 
spread this arch of splendor across the concave of this His 
temple ? Who first told the strong sons of God to " shout 
with joy," and bade " the morning stars sing together," 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



27 



when all creation was ringing with the notes of Him, the 
first composer ; when earth and air and heaven celebrated 
His praises ; until the intruder sin broke the universal 
chorus, jarred against nature's chime, tore the harp 
strings of His angels, and who, by conquering sin and 
death, brings back the lost melody ? Who has sanctified 
this art of music, 

NOT TO OPPEESS THE INTELLECT, 

not to cloud it, not to silence it, not to lull it into a sleep 
fatal to its powers ? No, but to beautify, to elevate and 
to influence even the intellect itself, by purifying the im- 
agination and the heart. He it was who, having inspired 
this glorious art, declared that Music should become in 
heaven itself eternal ; that when all the others should, as it 
were, faint at the gates of heaven, when the chisel should 
fall from the sculptor's hand on seeing the magnificent 
ideals that he thought to represent ; when the painter 
should cast away the brush in view of the glorious 
coloring beyond the stars ; when the poet should breathe 
no more the song of hope, but should enjoy eternal fru- 
ition ; when the architect need no more to build a 
house with hands in view of the eternal temple of Al- 
mighty God ; when the sacred mission of all the other 
arts shall have been fulfilled, that then glorious Music 
should survive them all, and flying in, as it were, through 
the gates of light, give her lessons to the angels, and the 
architect and the sculptor and the painter and the poet 
should all become for eternity the children of song.* 

In all of this, where is the slavery of the intellect ? 
Hence, that man at St. Peter's should not have risen 
from his position, should not have broken the enchant- 
ing bonds, but have said to himself: "This Church has 
won my heart — has touched it in religious worship, as it 
was never touched before. I will try if a Church which 
is so beautiful, a Church which moves the depths of the 
human soul so marvellously, may not also satisfy my 
intellect, and thus it will have won at once, both pow- 

* The arts appeared also in God's Temple of Jerusalem, where, for instance, the 
sculptured cherubim adorned the Ark, and men " bowed down " before it — but 
not in adoration of it — precisely as Catholics act in our temples. 



28 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



ers." Thus acted the distinguished American citizen, 
Judge Burnett, formerly of this State, afterwards Gov- 
ernor of California, and now one of the most honored 
citizens of San Francisco, the author of that admirable 
book, " TheTath which Led a Protestant Lawyer to the 
Catholic Church." He had been present at Christmas 
midnight mass. He had felt his heart moved in a man- 
ner, as he himself said, that he never had experienced 
before. He did not become a Catholic because he was 
so influenced, as that would be illogical; but he 
continued to examine ; and when his intellect was con- 
vinced, after his heart was moved, then he bowed that 
intellect — and it is a noble one — he bowed both intellect 
and heart to the influence of the Truth and Beauty of 
the Catholic Church. 

In this there is nothing illogical nor degrading. Hence 
there is no slavery in the Church's use of ceremoaies, in 
the Church's use of the arts in her worship of God, as 
means that will bring the soul nearer to God, which 
means are in harmony with certain powers of the soul 
herself. And what can be more appropriate than to 
offer the tribute of all that is beautiful in nature and 
art at the footstool of the throne of the God of the 
Beautiful ! Whatever brings the soul nearer to God, 
in such a manner as to be affected, by the influ- 
ence of God upon its powers, that is to be embraced, 
that is to be used. ISTor is there danger of idolatry 
in all this. No man is absurd enough to suppose 
that in the use of these statues and pictures, we will 
regard them as deities. The thing is too absurd. In- 
deed, it is beginning to be regarded as absurd by the 
most intelligent Protestants of the day, who very freely, 
I think, understand that in the use of these objects of 
worship there is little or no fear of our being so ridicu- 
lous as to mistake them for deities ! 

Again, ladies and gentlemen, the Church does not 
degrade religion, by placing any creature on the throne 
of God. God alone she adores. Catholics do not be- 



What Oatholics^Do Not Believe. 



29 



lieve that the Blessed Virgin, or any saint, or all the 
saints together, can receive anything like the slightest 
act of adoration. Adoration is due to God alone. " The 
Lord thy God thou shalt adore." It were 

HIGH TREASON AGAINST THE KING OF KINGS 

to place any one upon his throne. Between God and the 
first archangel of heaven — between God and that sweet 
Virgin Mary, who was so near to him in life, there must 
be (in the sense of divinity) an infinite distance, for this 
reason, because the Divinity is infinitely above all his 
creatures. Whatever these creatures have, he gave 
them. The Blessed Vigin and the saints are but the 
works of his hands. He is the Infinite and Eternal God, 
and no Catholic believes that any of these creatures 
should be worshipped as the infinite and eternal God is 
worshipped. All that they have, they have received 
from him. They shine by his reflected light. He is a 
jealous God. He will not give his glory to another. 
True ; but he cannot be jealous of these creatures of his, 
no matter how exalted they may be, as these crea 
tures acknowledge him, and we confess that all that 
they have, must come from him. Can you imagine an 
artist jealous of his own picture — a picture that he him- 
self has executed ? Suppose you are praising the pic- 
ture, can you imagine the artist coming to you and say- 
ing:^ "Don't praise the picture, praise me?" Would 
you not say ; " Why, sir, I am praising you in your pic- 
ture." Can you imagine an author jealous of his own 
book ? And if persons praise it, is it any derogation from 
the praise due to him ? Can you imagine an architect 
jealous of tke stately building that he himself has de- 
signed ? No. You would say, this is mere folly indeed. 
Neither can God be jealous of any honor given to these 
creatures, as creatures. They are the books of which he 
is the author ; they are the paintings, as it were, of which 
he is the artist ; they are the splendid buildings of which 



30 What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



he is the architect ; and, therefore, there is no degrada- 
tion of religion, no placing of any creature whatever in 
the place of God, because, between him and the highest 
creature there is this infinite distance. And, therefore, 
the charge falls to the ground when we know that Cath- 
olics do not believe that the Blessed Virgin ought to be 
worshipped as if she were a goddess ; when we know that 
Catholics do not believe that any honor can be given to 
her, or to any saint, independently of the Deity, and 
that all the glory they have is but the reflected glory of 
the most high God ! 

Let us suppose for a moment, as some one has sug- 
gested, that after Washington had achieved the liberties 
of the American people, he comes forward upon the 
platform before them. They, are cheering him, their 
deliverer ; and let us suppose that Washington's mother 
comes out upon the platform, and some one says : 4< Let 
us cheer the mother that gave us such a son." Do you 
think Washington would be jealous of the honor given 
to his own mother, and given her chiefly because she 
was his mother, because of him? And wherefore shall 
our Divine Lord be jealous of the honor given to his 
mother when that honor is given especially because she 
was his mother ■? 

"But you pray so long to the Blessed Virgin and 
the Saints, and sometimes pray but for a short time, to 
Almighty God. Is not this an evidence that you are 
thinking more of these creatures of God than you are of 
God himself?" 

It is not the length of time that we spend praying 
that determines the character of the prayer. One bend- 
ing of the knee in adoration, which must be offered to God 
alone, is a higher act of worship than if one were a cen- 
tury praying without adoration. If the Catholic performs 
acts of worship that mislead the non-Catholic — long 
prayers or bowing before the statues of the Blessed Vir- 
gin, or swinging the censers before the statues of saints 
or angels — you must remember that the character of the 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



31 



worship is to be judged by the doctrine ; not the doctrine 
by the worship. You must have first the key to what 
the Catholic means by these external expressions, either 
in action or in word, before you understand, and cer- 
tainly before you condemn, this external action. I may 
bow the knee without intending adoration. In the old 
English Book of Common Prayer, in the Protestant 
marriage service, the bridegroom uses the words, if I re- 
member rightly : " With this ring I thee wed, and with 
my body I thee worship." Now, if some one said to 
him, " Do you really mean to adore this creature ? You 
say you worship her." "Oh, no," he will say. u You 
must first understand what I mean by worship. Words 
are words. It is the meaning attached to the word, and 
it is by that meaning I have to be judged. I lonor her. 
It does not mean here such worship as you imagine." 
Formerly, in the religious sense of the term, men adored, 
as the term implies, by placing the hand to the mouth, 
and then towards the statue — ad os, to the mouth ; so, 
ktssing hands was supreme adoration It is not now, 
of course, supreme adoration. The external act, then, 
must be interpreted by the internal intention, and the 
internal intention by what is the teaching of the Church 
on the subject. 

There is no Catholic who believes that it would not be 
idolatry and blasphemy to offer to any being that su- 
preme worship that is due to God alone ; and hence he 
cannot have any intention of adoration in these other- 
wise indifferent acts. He may indeed spend a long time 
in asking the saints or the Blessed Virgin to pray for 
him, but he well knows it is only Gfod that can bestow 
upon him what he wants : as a man that desires an office 
from the President knows that it is only the President 
can give it, but he may spend a long time in conversa- 
tion with some dear friend of the President, and you 
do not conclude from this that he thinks this friend can 
do more for him than the President can ! He is only 
interesting the friend to go to the President to ask the 



32 What Catholics Bo Not Believe. 



favor for him.* So they ask the saints to pray for- 
them, as non-Catholics ask one another's prayers. 
Thus when you know what Catholics really do believe 
upon these subjects, you will find no difficulty in under- 
standing how rational that faith is, and how far from 
degrading. 

"But here," says another, "are inanimate objects. 
These inanimate objects are honored in the same man- 
ner, and are even said to perform miracles. Now, if 
inanimate objects perform miracles, there must be a 
divinity in these inanimate objects ; therefore you deify 
the object. You suppose that in that old bone of a 
saint, or in that old crucifix, there is a power to perform 
miracles, and here is surely idolatry. Here is certainly 
a derogation from the honor which should be given to Al- 
mighty God ; and here it is worse than in the case of the 
Blessed Virgin or the saints, because they are rational 
and holy beings, but here is an inanimate, vile object of 
the earth, to which you attribute the power of perform- 
ing miracles." 

Miracles are perpetually performed, it is said, by 
these objects in the hands of saints, and a great many 
stories, sometimes very amusing ones, are told of the 
number and manner and marvelous character of these 
miracles. Suppose, as a relief in this long lecture, I 
relate to you a few more of these pious stories, then pro- 
ceed to illustrate the subject. 

Once there was a pious, credulous people, and in their 
country there lived an old saint in a hermitage, near the 
banks of a lake, apart from the world, with only one lay 
brother. One day this saint look a walk by the banks 
of the lake. He saw a woodman felling trees. The 
hatchet of the poor man fell into the lake, and the saint, 
with a marvelous facility for performing miracles by the 
aid of inanimate objects, took a little twig from a tree, 

* It is in this intercessory sense that we call the Blessed Virgin our hope, etc. 
Here is the key to all the apparently extravagant terms used in addressing her. 
And surely if we ask fellow sinners on earth to pray for us without degrading 
religion, we may asks saints in heaven. 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



33 



coaxedfthe hatchet up, and gave it to the woodman, who 
went on his way rejoicing. The saint returned home; 
and after he had returned to his home he found there a 
poor widow, who came with the rqueest that he should go 
and raise her child to life. She supposed he could do any 
thing that he pleased ! The saint was fatigued probably 
after his walk, and didn't wish to go, so he called to the 
lay brother and said, "Brother, take this walking-stick of 
mine and with it revive this poor woman's child." After 
a while the saint died — for saints will die, too — and they 
buried him. In the open grave of the saint another 
body was subsequently placed. The saint who was very 
fond of solitude during his life rather rejoiced in it after 
death, and didn't want this man in the same grave with 
him. Therefore, with the same facility for performing 
miracles, his inanimate body brought the man to life 
without being restored to life itself, and sent him on his 
way rejoicing. 

Now, in the same country there lived another saint, 
and as the people were grievously affected by snakes, 
this saint, who was not as cruel to the snakes as a cer- 
tain Irish saint who expelled them all, erected a large 
cross, something like the mission cross that you may 
see outside or inside of certain churches, and told the 
people when they were bitten by the snakes that they 
should look at the cross, and they would be cured ; and 
it is said that they were. This saint had a box made, 
in which he placed some relics, and told the people that 
they must take great care of the box, that it would 
always protect them, and when they went to fight they 
must bear it with them. Their enemies, however, got 
hold of the box on one occasion, but they were soon very 
glad to return it to these simple, good people, as it tor- 
mented them. And there lived amongst them later on 
anojher ~ainr,, who performed miracles, not merely by 
the use of inanimate, senseless objects like these, but 
when he was parfpi ning miracles| in one direction, his 
shadow was performing them in the other 
3 



34 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



Now, in what chronicle of the middlelages, in what 
old monkish Lives of Saints, have I found the account 
of these saints performing miracles by the aid of these 
inanimate objects? Where have I found this account? 
Substantially in the Protestant Bible, and, of course, in 
the Catholic Bible, too. Elisha, the prophet, was walk- 
ing by the banks of a river; a man was felling trees } 
and the axe fell into the water. The prophet, by the 
aid of the little twig, brought up the iron till it swam 
upon the surface, and he then returned it to the grate- 
ful woodman. There was a widow whose only child was 
dead, and Elisha, as he is called in the Protestant, Eliseus 
in the Catholic Bible, did not go at first to raise the 
child, but called his man and said, " Take my staff," 
(which, after all, was his walking stick,) " and lay it up- 
on the face of the child." Elisha was also, the inhospit- 
able buried saint, whose dead bones (relics) restored 
the intruder to life. But who was the saint that 
erected the large cross to protect the people from the 
biting of the snakes ? Who but Moses, who erected the 
brazen serpent that was to symbolize the cross, and told 
the people when bitten by the serpents, to look at that 
brazen serpent, and they would be healed? And what 
was the box of relics but the ark of the covenant, with 
the rod of Aaron, with the vessel of manna, with the 
tables of the law, with those venerable relics ? — all inan- 
imate objects! And who was the saint whose shadow 
(not even an inanimate object) performed miracles, but 
St. Peter ; for we are told in the Acts of the Apostles 
that people brought their sick that his shadow might 
fall upon them. So the Catholic believes nothing in 
regard to these subjects substantially different from 
what the Protestant must admit — which is not contained 
in the Bible of God. Nor can even the rationalist object 
if he admit the existence of God and His angels. God 
could use these inanimate objects as he uses animate 
objects. What is the difference to him between the first 
spirit in heaven and the humblest inanimate object on 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



35 



earth ? Both being creatures must be infinitely beneath 
him. It is only a question of the difference between two 
little things. 

Therefore is there nothing irrational in supposing that 
God, for his own ends — sometimes those ends are pa- 
tent, sometimes they are concealed — but there is nothing 
irrational in supposing that God can act through these 
external objects. These relics do not perform the mira- 
cles. God acts through them. God uses them, just as 
he uses men ; there is no divinity in them. God uses 
them simply as an instrument. Surely God can do just 
as he pleases with his own creatures, in the manner that 
he pleases, when he pleases, and no man dare ask him 
why ? I may add, in passing, when we hear of those mar- 
vellous things, of miracles, and visions, and so forth, the 
Catholic does not believe that he is bound to accept them 
all. What ! Every imagination of every excitable old lady, 
or young lady ; every vision of every intensified, highly- 
wrought mind ! No ! these reported miracles have to be 
examined, as Dr. Newman remarks, upon the very same 
laws of evidence by which any other facts are examined. 
I examine the reported fact ; I bring to it the ordinary 
laws -of evidence ; I reject or accept it upon evidence 
brought before me, admitting, of course, the possibility 
of Almighty God performing a miracle — the possibility, 
but not the fact, until it shall have been proved. Hence 
there is =no degradation of either reason or religion. 

Neither is it true, ladies and gentlemen, that the Old 
Church tends to demoralize the individual or the national 
conscience, by her use of that power which God gave to 
his apostles upon the very day of his resurrection, when 
he said : " Whose sins ye shall forgive they are forgiven 
them." 

The confessor is simply God's agent, and just as the 
clergyman, who baptizes the child, washes out the origi- 
nal sin that was upon the soul of the child — as the Pro- 
testant clergyman, or the layman, or whoever baptizes 
the child, washes away this original sin from the soul of 



36 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



the child, doing it as God's agent — so the priest forgives 
the actual sin, but only as Gfod's agent. The power 
given to him is a delegated power ; he cannot exercise 
it beyond the limits assigned by him who delegated it. 

Now, Almighty God will not forgive a man's sins 
without sorrow for them and necessary reparation for 
their effects, and determination to enter on a new life. 
The priest can never forgive the sins of a man who is 
not truly contrite. The priest has no power over such 
a soul. If the priest had this tremendous power to for- 
give sins as he pleased, then the confessional should be 
abolished in every civilized country. Then it would 
demoralize any people on the face of God's earth ; then 
it would, indeed, lessen man's horror of sin. The absurd, 
the blasphemous position that a man could do what the 
eternal God himself will not do — forgive the sins of a 
man who is not sorry for them, who will not amend his 
life and make reparation to property or character for 
injury done; to suppose this would be, indeed, to sup- 
pose all that is popularly supposed by Protestants as 
held in the Catholic doctrine of confession. Nor is there 
any fatal facility of obtaining pardon, because the Cath- 
olic, in order to obtain pardon, has to do all that the 
Protestant has to do, before he goes to confession at all. 
He must be sorry for his sin, he must purpose amend- 
ment, he must go through all these preparations of the 
soul, in order to fit himself to go to confession I eao e 
there is no fatal facility, no lessening of the horror due 
to sin ; and these dispositions are required from every 
one who goes to confession. The discipline is uni- 
versal. 

Look at that old man, over eighty- five years of age, 
moving towards that barefoot monk in the confessional. 
This old man kneels down before the monk, and says : 
" Bless me, father, for I have sinned. I confess to Al- 
mighty God," and so forth, "that I have sinned. 
Through my fault, through my fault, through my most 
grievous fault." He tells his sins, and the priest must 



What Catholics Do Not Believe, 



37 



~be certain that he is sorry for them. Who is this old 
man, thus humbled ? Who is this man that falls at the 
feet of the poor monk ? Pope Pius IX himself ! He has 
to go to confession ; he has to be sorry for his sins, and 
the priest would be bound, at the peril of his eternal 
salvation, to send even him away from the tribunal, un- 
less — if you can imagine such a thing — he were not 
certain that he had the necessary dispositions. Won- 
derful Church! which while it exalts the office, ever 
humbles the man?* This discipline is universal, and 
therefore the individual conscience is not demoralized 
by this practice, and, by consequence, neither is the 
conscience of a people. Hear the testimony of a man as 
to the effect of the confessional, not only on the indi- 
vidual soul, but on the nation also. Hear one, who is 
unexceptional as such a witness, who entertained the 
deepest and most intense hatred of religion that ever 
burned in infidel heart ; but who knew, from his own 
experience when he used to go to confession, and when, 
perhaps, he was pure and good, the value of the con- 
fessional upon his soul. This witness is Yoltaire him- 
self. He says: 

" There is no more wise institution than that of con- 
fession. The most of mankind, guilty of crimes, are 
naturally tormented with remorse. The lawgivers who 
established mysteries and expiations, were equally 
anxious to prevent the criminals, under the influence of 
despair, from rushing recklessly into new crimes. Con- 
fession is an excellent thing — a bridle on inveterate 
crimes. It is excellent for disposing hearts, ulcerated 
with hatred, to forgive; and the unjust to repair the in- 
juries they may have done to their neighbor. The ene- 
mies of the Roman Church, who oppose so salutary an 
institution, have taken away from man the greatest 
check that can be imagined on iniquity. The wise men 
of antiquity have all recognized its importance. The 

* Evidently from this it follows, that "we do not believe," that Papal Infalli- 
bility involves Papal impeccability. 



38 What Catholics Bo Not Believe. 

Catholic religion has consecrated that of which Gfod per- 
mitted human wisdom to perceive the advantage and 
embrace its shadows." 

Leibnitz, one of the greatest men that Protestantism 
or any other ism can boast of — the equal of Sir Isaac 
Newton in physical science, and his superior in almost 
every other department — speaks of confession in terms 
which might be employed by the most devoted fre- 
quenter of the sacred tribunal. 

If Catholic nations seem sometimes morally degraded T 
depend on it, that the immoral people who bring dis- 
grace on them, are not the people who go to confession,, 
but often the infidel radicals who denounce it. Left un- 
under its sacred influence, they would be very different 
indeed, if they lamented before God their sins, and re- 
ceived the salutary counsel which they cannot receive 
until they have resolved to become new creatures. 
Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, because a man does 
not submit to a human institution his intellect in order 
to find out the truth of God, but submits it to what he 
has convinced himself is a divine institution ; because 
Catholics do not believe, and the Church does not teach^ 
that the Scriptures should be kept from the people ; be- 
cause Catholics do no believe that in ceremonies and in 
external pomp and show, and in the use of the arts,, 
that in these alone there is religion, but that they have 
to be used as aids to bring the soul into communion with 
God, who has to be worshiped "in spirit and in truth ;"" 
because Catholics do not believe that the creature has to 
take the place of the Creator ; because Catholics do not 
worship pictures or images as if deities, and give no 
supreme worship to any one but to God alone; because 
there is no fatal facility in obtaining pardon for sin, and 
no degrading influences, but a marvelous conservatism 
in the use of the confessional ; therefore do these 
charges fall to the ground; therefore is it true that 
the Church does not enslave the intellect; that the 
Church does not degrade religion ; that the Church does 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



39 



not demoralize the people. In order that you may be 
confirmed in the truth of what I have said to you, and 
that there has been no special pleading, no explaining 
away, and no misrepresentation, and, in order, also, 
that you may understand that on many other subjects 
which it was impossible for me in one discourse'to touch, 
the Catholic Church is deeply, deeply misunderstood 
and wronged ; that that institution which the heart of the 
priest loves with all its intensity, for which its every fibre 
should vibrate, which is more to him than woman's love 
oould be, and for which he is prepared to sacrifice life 
itself ; that that institution which it is my sacred privi- 
lege to-night to explain and to defend, has been thus 
deeply wronged, is what you must confess to yourselves, 
no matter what may have been your opinions before, 
when I read for you one short summary of points of 
doctrine which we condemn and anathematize. 

In a little work which has been extensively circulated 
in England, Ireland and this country, these points are 
summarized in a striking manner. Any Catholic can, 
with his hand on the Bible, and in a solemn oath, say 
4 Amen" to the following propositions: 

Cursed is he who commits idolatry, who prays to 
images or relics, or worships them for God. Amen. 

Cursed is every goddess, worshiper, who believes the 
Tirgin Mary to be any more than a creature, who wor- 
ships her or puts his trust in her-more than God; who 
believes her above her Son, or that she can in any way 
€ommand^Him. Amen. 

Cursed is he who believes the saints in heaven to be 
his redeemers, who prays to them as such, or who gives 
God's honor to them or [to any creature whatever ; and 
he who believes that ^priests can forgive sins, whether 
the sinner repent or not, or that there is any power on 
earth that can forgive sin* without a hearty repentance 
and a serious amendment ; and he who believes Jthat 
there is authority in the Pope, or in any other person, 
that can give leave to commit sin, or that for a sum of 



40 What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



money can forgive sins ; and he who believes that, inde- 
pendently of the merits and passion of Christ, he can 
obtain salvation by his own works, or make condign 
satisfaction for the gnilt of his sins or the eternal pains 
due to them ; and he who contemns the word of God or 
who hides it from the people in order to keep them from 
a knowledge of their duty and to preserve them in igno- 
rance and error ; and he who undervalues the word of 
God, or that, forsaking the Scripture, chooses rather to 
follow human traditions than it ; and he who believes 
that the Pope can give to any, upon any occasion what- 
soever, dispensations to lie or swear falsely, or that it is 
lawful for any at the last hour to protest himself inno- 
cent in case he is guilty; and he who teaches it to be 
lawful to do anything wicked, though it be for the in- 
terest and good of " Mother Church," or that any evil 
action may be done that good may come from it. Amen. 

Cursed are we if, in answering or in saying " Amen " 
to any of these curses, we use any equivocation or men 
tal reservation, or do not assent to them in the common 
and obvious sense of the terms. Amen. 

And the author says, " Can the Papists, then, thus 
seriously, and without check of conscience say ' Amen' 
to all these curses ?" Yes, they can, and they are ready 
to do so whensoever and as often as it shall be required 
of them. (Papist Misrepresented, page 124.)^" 

Here is the evidence of what Catholics do not believe, 
for the first time perhaps understood by many generous- 
hearted people here to-night — people who have felt that 
he would not do injustice or wrong to any individual, 
and who will not do injustice any more to two hundred 
millions of individuals on God's earth. But that injus- 
tice has been done, and therefore is it essential that it 
should be undone, as far as each individual who hears 
me to-night, is concerned. Two hundred millions of peo- 

* This work (published over 30 years ago) can be obtained at Mr. Fox's store, 
in this city. Another excellent work, "T 1 - Faith of Our Fathers," by Most Rev. 
Dr. Gibbons, now Archbishop of Baltimore, ought to be read by those who desire 
tc> investigate these Important points. 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



41 



pie demand reparation, because the very doctrines that 
they curse are the doctrines which they have been falsely 
charged with believing. These are the doctrines "Oath 
olics do not believe " The Church could never have 
lasted, ladies and gentlemen, under the weight of all 
the persecutions and misrepresentations of this kind if 
she were not the Church of the living God — if she had 
not the promise that the ";gates of hell should not pre- 
vail against her." That is the promise that sustains 
her, directs her, and inspires her — that has been her 
guarantee of triumph for over eighteen hundred years, 
and shall be until the end 

Never shall I forget the evidences that I once saw and 
heard of the stability of this Church, in her war against 
the powers of hell, of which one is this very misrepre- 
sentation of which I have been complaining. It was 
in Rome, in 1867; and with this description I shall close 
this already too prolonged lecture. On that occasion, 
the eighteen hundredth anniversary of the death of St. 
Peter, we were assembled in the magnificent Basilica 
that bears his name. Five hundred bishops gathered 
around the Sovereign Pontiff — bishops from every tribe 
and nation upon earth. There he stood, the Supreme 
Pontiff, the great central figure. Forty thousand wax 
lights illumined the magnificent assembly. The sculp- 
tured saints of eighteen centuries looked down from 
their niches and from the tombs around, upon us. The 
vast Basilica was crowded to its utmost capaciry. The 
papal choir, near the grand altar, commenced to sii.g 
these words, " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
build my Church," and when these one hundred voices 
seemed to have exhausted all their power and beauty of 
melody, three hundred voices above the entrance to St. 
Peter's continued the text, u I will build my Church," 
and the two choirs united, and then four hundred 
voices — the Chorus Angelorum — in the dome, " that 
vast and wondrous dome, to which Diana's marvel 
was a cell," continued this text, and in the end the 



42 



What Catholics Do Not Believe. 



basso voices commencing, and the whole magnificent 
ocean of melody surging onward, they sang, "And the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it— Fortw inferi, 
non prevalebunt." We heard the non at the altar ; we 
heard it above the distant portals ; we heard it ringing 
round and round the dome. That text sounded in my 
mind that day as the announcement of a fact — of a chal- 
lenge—of a prophecy. There, above the tomb of Peter; 
there, where the hostile powers had met for eighteen 
hundred years ; there, where they had measured lances, 
these powers of hell and the old, united Church — 
the misrepresented, but still glorious Church — these 
words sounded like the announcement of the fact that 
after eighteen hundred }^ears of fighting she was still 
victorious. They rang out like a challenge, as if she 
said : " Come forth and fight the battle for eighteen 
centuries more if you wish it," and of a prophecy that 
that battle should end victoriously for her because of 
God's great promise ! Oh, glorious Church of the living 
God ! Oh, only divine institution upon earth ! In all 
thy power, in all thy unity, in all thy beauty, calumni- 
ated but not less lovely, here is the sanction for thy 
continuance, here the communicated life of God that 
gives thee vitality and which will crown thee with vic- 
tory for evermore. "On this rock I will build my 
Church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 



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